Windows – Extract archive here, autodetect subfolder

7-zipextractwindows 7

I use 7-Zip under Windows 7 to extract all kind of archives. The ever-running problem is that there is not a single way to handle subfolders.

Some people create their archives like this (let's call it type A):

.
├── subfolder
│   ├── file 1
│   ├── file 2
│   └── ...

"Extract Here" will extract everything to subfolder/, which is fine;
"Extract to <Folder>" will create an extra subfolder level, which is annoying.

And other people create them like that (let's call it type B):

.
├── file1
├── file 2
├── ...

"Extract Here" will populate the current folder, which can bring a lot of mess if this folder already contains tons of other files, and which is very annoying;
"Extract to <Folder>" will create a subfolder and conveniently stuff it with the archive content, which is fine.

So this leaves two options: always choose to "Extract to <Folder>" and live with the extra subfolder for type A archives. Or open the archive before extracting it to check if this is a type A or B, and then appropriately select "Extract Here" or "Extract to <Folder>".

I usually do the latter, but I just discovered that KDE is offering a very handy Extract Archive Here, Autodetect Subfolder feature that automates that. It'll "Extract Here" for type A archives, and it'll "Extract to <Folder>" for type B archives.

I love this idea. Is there a Windows 7 tool offering this option? Preferably integrated in the explorer context menu? Maybe it's hidden somewhere in 7-Zip and I just didn't find it?

Best Answer

I believe the File paths section on the Advanced tab of WinRAR's archive extraction dialog might be what you're looking for:

WinRAR advanced archive extraction options 1

Edit: All right, I believe I have it. On WinRAR's Options / Settings / Compression tab, select Remove redundant folders from extraction path.

WinRAR advanced archive extraction options 2

Here's what it does, according to the help file:

Remove redundant folders from extraction path

This option works only in context menus, only for single selected archive with single folder and no files in archive root folder and only for "Extract to DestName\" command, where 'DestName' is a name of folder proposed by WinRAR and based on archive name. If all these conditions are met, this option removes the top level folder based on archive name from extraction path.

For example, if you have Pictures.rar containing all files in 'Samples' folder and if you unpack it with "Extract to Pictures\" context menu command, WinRAR will place files to "Pictures\Samples" if this option is off and to "Samples" if it is on. So it helps to save one click, avoiding necessity to open 'Pictures' folder, which contains nothing but 'Samples'.

This option introduces an additional delay in the beginning of extraction, because WinRAR needs to scan an archive and analyze its folder structure. Note that context menu still displays the archive based folder name even if it will be removed from path when extracting. Showing the correct folder already in context menu would introduce a potentially annoying delay between right clicking an archive and displaying the context menu.

I just tried it and it works brilliantly, so you end up with either <current_folder>\<archive_name> or <current_folder>\<subfolder_name>, and never <current_folder>\<archive_name>\<subfolder_name>.

As for 7-Zip, I see that a request to copy this feature from WinRAR has been pending for more than 3 years.

Step 1 - Setup your installation folder

To make this easy create a folder c:\Install. This is where we will copy all the required files.

Step 2 - 7Zip your installers

Go to the folder that has your .msi and your setup.exe
Select both the .msi and the setup.exe
Right-Click and choose 7Zip --> "Add to Archive"
Name your archive "Installer.7z" (or a name of your choice)
Click Ok
You should now have "Installer.7z".
Copy this .7z file to your c:\Install directory

Step 3 - Get the 7z-Extra sfx extension module

You need to download the 7z-Extra.

Follow this link to go to download 7Zip
You need to download the 9.20 version (as @ May-2015) as the beta does not contain the correct files.
A direct download link.
Extract the 7zip extra files
Copy the file "7zS.sfx" to c:\Install

Step 4 - Setup your config.txt

I would recommend using NotePad++ to edit this text file as you will need to encode in UTF-8, the following instructions are using notepad++.

Using windows explorer go to c:\Install
right-click and choose "New Text File" and name it config.txt
right-click and choose "Edit with NotePad++
Click the "Encoding Menu" and choose "Encode in UTF-8"

Enter something like this:

;!@Install@!UTF-8!
Title="SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0"
BeginPrompt="Do you want to install SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0?"
RunProgram="setup.exe"
;!@InstallEnd@!

Edit this replacing [SOFTWARE v1.0.0.0] with your product name. Notes on the parameters and options for the setup file are here

CheckPoint

You should now have a folder "c:\Install" with the following 3 files:

Installer.7z
7zS.sfx
config.txt

Step 5 - Create the archive

These instructions I found on the web but nowhere did it explain any of the 4 steps above.

Open a cmd window, Window + R --> cmd --> press enter
In the command window type the following

cd \
cd Install
copy /b 7zS.sfx + config.txt + Installer.7z MyInstaller.exe

Look in c:\Install and you will now see you have a MyInstaller.exe

Run the installer

Double click on MyInstaller.exe and it will prompt with your message. Click OK and the setup.exe will run.

P.S. Note on Automation

Now that you have this working in your c:\Install directory I would create an "Install.bat" file and put the copy script in it.

copy /b 7zS.sfx + config.txt + Installer.7z MyInstaller.exe

Now you can just edit and run the Install.bat every time you need to rebuild a new version of you deployment package.

Batch the “Extract Here” command

EDIT Given: Using batch script.

You may wish to use a third party zip tool (highly recommend 7-ZIP command line version called 7z.exe) to accomplish this.

with 7z, the syntax is as follows:

7z <command> [<switch>...] <base_archive_name> [<arguments>...]

To extract the command would be:

7z e file.zip -y

the -y switch assume "Yes" answer to any questions that may come up during extraction such as overwrite requests.

So your command will read

CD "C:\Location\Of\ZipFiles"
FOR /F "USEBACKQ tokens=*" %%F IN (`DIR /b *.zip`) DO (7z e "%%F" -y)

If you want to output them into a different location, you can use the -o switch and specify the directory:

7z e "%%F" -y -oC:\Some\Other\Folder\

EDIT:

To perform the extract with full paths and specifying all ZIP archives only, use this:

7z x -tzip "C:\Location\of\zips\*"

Or even nutzier... all ZIP files on C: drive:

7z x -r -tzip "C:\*"

EDIT2:

Making it compatible with your output file, this:

dir /s /b *.zip > allzips.txt
for /F %%x in (allzips.txt) do (7z x -tzip "%%x")